VMware announced that Campbell Clinic Orthopaedics (Campbell Clinic) has deployed VMware Infrastructure 3 to virtualize its mission-critical applications and create a flexible, easily administered virtual infrastructure. VMware offers enterprise-class functionality in deployment sizes that fit the needs of small and midsize businesses (SMBs). The Campbell Clinic is one of thousands of SMBs that utilize VMware’s proven and reliable cost-effective solutions to optimize their existing IT investments. VMware provides the scalability and flexibility for customers to buy what they need today and evolve their virtualization solutions as their business needs grow.

When its server infrastructure was due for a technology refresh, Campbell Clinic faced the choice of either replacing its servers entirely with physical boxes, or utilizing a combination of hardware and software to create a virtual infrastructure. Campbell Clinic selected the VMware Infrastructure 3 suite as the best solution for its virtualization needs.

“We’re primarily a Microsoft environment and we knew that Windows and Microsoft apps have a proven track record of running on VMware,” said Justin Lauer, IT Manager, Campbell Clinic Orthopaedics. “That made the selection process rather simple — we really didn’t have to spend too much time evaluating different virtualization vendors because VMware is so far ahead of the competition, in terms of the maturity of their product.”

With the help of VMware Partner Meridian IT, based in Deerfield, IL, Campbell Clinic was able to deploy the VMware Infrastructure 3 solution in just three days, providing a seamless transition from a physical to a virtual infrastructure. This enabled the company to start virtualizing mission-critical Microsoft applications like Exchange, Sharepoint, and SQL Server. As an independent solutions company, Meridian IT brings together the vast resources of the best manufacturers in the industry, to provide customers with an unparalleled range of choices and solution flexibility.

“The up-time and stability that VMware Infrastructure 3 provides for our applications is very impressive,” said Lauer. “Running applications in VMware virtual machines has improved performance tremendously. Our main patient records system runs better in a virtual environment than it ever did before because we’re able to allocate more resources to it.”

Virtualization of its mission-critical applications has allowed Campbell Clinic to consolidate its servers onto a relatively small number of ESX hypervisors and reduce its physical server count by 58 percent. This consolidation is poised to save Campbell Clinic more than $100,000 in hardware purchases, power and cooling costs, and administration time over the next three years. Just as importantly, though, is the reliability and stability that VMware Infrastructure 3 provides for its applications, particularly with regards to business continuity and disaster recovery.

“Business continuity and disaster recovery are important areas for any company, but especially those in the healthcare industry,” said Lauer. “VMware has allowed us to advance our business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities by leaps and bounds. We back up our VMware virtualized servers several times a day to an offsite location, so that in the event of a disaster, we can turn our mission critical servers on, and have our operations back up and running as quickly as possible. That kind of flexibility doesn’t just benefit our organization — it helps us provide a higher level of service to our patients.”